Back to back wins for Redzel in the Group 2 $200,000 Bowermans Office Furniture Shorts (1100m) at Randwick on Saturday will tighten his grip on favouritism for The Everest.

Redzel, above, is chasing back to back wins in the Shorts at Randwick. Photo by Steve Hart.

Redzel, above, is chasing back to back wins in the Shorts at Randwick. Photo by Steve Hart.

Redzel is listed at $1.80 with Ladbrokes.com.au to win back to back Shorts while in betting for the $13m The Everest (1200m) at Randwick on October 13, the Peter and Paul Snowden trained flyer is sitting at the top of the market order at $4.50.

Redzel kicked off his Everest defence campaign with a first up win in the Group 3 $160,000 Concorde Stakes (1000m) at Randwick on September 1 and co-trainer Peter Snowden said that last year’s Everest winner will go into the Shorts this weekend in better shape.

“He’s tightened up nicely, his coat hasn’t come all the way through but it looks better,’’ Snowden told Racing New South Wales News Desk.

“He took some benefit from that last run so he is on track again.’’

“It is difficult to win all the time but a horse like him, while he’s not a Winx, he’s very genuine.’’

“He tries so hard every time he goes out. He handles it wet and dry, good gates and bad gates, the variables that stop other horses.

“He just does everything right and most of the time you are going to win or run well rather than need luck to get the best out of them.’’

Redzel has drawn nicely at barrier three in the nine horse Shorts fields with regular rider Kerrin McEvoy in the saddle again and the top line sprinter will be taking on several Everest rivals on Saturday, Invincible Star ($5), English ($5.50) and Brave Smash ($8.50).

The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained Invincible Star (James McDonald, barrier 2) set the pace first up but couldn’t hold off the challenges of Redzel and Kaepernick to finish third in the Concorde Stakes while her stablemate English (Tim Clark, barrier 9) will be having her first start since a Brisbane Winter Carnival campaign that saw her win the Group 1 $700,000 Kirin Doomben 10,000 (1200m) at Doomben.

The Darren Weir trained Brave Smash (Hugh Bowman, barrier 5)  will be fitter for one run back from a spell when third to Ball Of Muscle in the Group 3 $150,000 The Heath 1100 Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield on September 1.

Ball Of Muscle (Glyn Schofield, barrier 6) will also be lining up in the Shorts and is marked as a $10 chance with Ladbrokes.com.au.

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.